Share in online gaming companies without exposure to "illegal" US
gamblers rocketed this morning in response to Friday night's crackdown
against the three largest poker websites in America.

Bwin.party, the newly merged combination of sportsbook group Bwin and poker site operator PartyGaming, leapt more than a third, rising 44.3 to 175.3p. Analysts said the European gaming operator could be the biggest beneficiary of the high-profile bust by the US authorities as punters switch to legal sites, improving their liquidity and the potential size of payouts.

Smaller rival 888, which last week broke off merger talks with Ladbrokes, saw its shares rebound 5.75 to 40.5p.

Playtech, the software provider to gambling industry, was the other main winner, with the shares jumping 36.36 to 352.11p.

In a dramatic swoop against PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, US authorities closed down the sites in America, claiming they had “concocted an elaborate criminal fraud” to trick and bribe banks into “massive money laundering and bank fraud”.

Charges were levelled at 11 people, with the founders of the three sites facing up to 20 years in jail if found guilty of breaching US anti-gambling and money laundering laws.

The indictment also sought the repayment of $3bn (£1.8bn) as the US Department of Justice (DoJ) seized the companies’ bank accounts and took control of their US websites.

The crackdown surprised many in the industry, given America had long turned what seemed like a blind eye to the ongoing activity of the three websites despite their flagrant contravention of 2006's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act - legislation that forced the likes of PartyGaming and 888 to withdraw from America.

Some industry experts believe, however, that busting the websites is the prelude to America legalising and regulating online gambling - potentially to the benefit of US land-based casino operators, such as those occupying Las Vegas' Nevada strip.

James Hollins, an analyst at Evolution Securities, said: "All in all, we think the newsflow is good to very good news for the operators of non-US facing poker operations."

He said that, assuming the US authorities follow through on Friday night's bust, "US-facing poker operators would (1) certainly cease to operate in the US, (2) they may close globally, if their ‘.com’ sites are seized, and (3) their reputations, even if they stay open outside US, would be seriously damaged".

He added: "On balance, we think that ‘clearing the decks’ can stimulate regulation rather than prohibition, with licences, and revenues, going to US land-based operators, with the potential for European operator business-to-business upside."

Execution Noble analyst Geetanjali Sharma said: "The US facing operators have been a drain on the profitability of the European operators as their US liquidity drew the non-US poker players and at the same time these operators diverted cash gained from the US operations to gain market share in the regulating territories in Europe."